Tips for rolling out the Code of Conduct at your village
More than 700 retirement communities around Australia have already signalled their intent to signing up to the Retirement Living Code of Conduct to demonstrate a strong commitment to high resident satsifaction.
We asked some leading members for tips on how to ensure widespread awareness within resident communities about what the Code means, as well as educating staff and local community stakeholders about their Code commitments.
Here are nine tips for a successful rollout of the Code of Conduct at your retirement community.
- Spend some time reading the Code and discussing it with your teams. Focus on a particular aspect of the Code at your regular staff meetings. There are some supporting resources available to provide further guidance, such as our complaints handling guidelines and compliance checklist.
- Take our Property Council Academy e-learning course at academy.propertycouncil.com.au. This is a half hour training course that will give you not only an overview of the Code content, but provide some interactive scenarios on how it would apply.
- Present a signed copy of the Code to your resident committee and send a letter to all residents advising that your company supports the Code. Signing up to the Code is a whole of village effort and it’s important the village residents support the idea.
- Advise your clients that you support the Code – include a flyer in your information packs, display on your website and send an e-newsletter.
- Appoint a Code compliance officer. Ideally this is not a village manager, but someone with a role in overseeing the village operations, who can oversee how policies are being implemented to ensure ongoing compliance with the Code.
- Hold a village morning tea. Invite all the residents for a cuppa and a biscuit, make copies of the Code available, talk about why you’re making the decision to sign up and answer any questions the residents may have.
- Sign up! All the information is at retirementlivingcode.com.au
- Promote your compliance. A Code compliance seal is available for you to use in brochures, websites and other marketing material, so you can talk to prospective residents about your Code commitments. Include the seal in your email signatures.
- Invite the community. Use your open days and community engagement activities to mention your commitment to the Code. It’s also a great speaking topic for a visit from a local member of Parliament or councillor.
For further advice or information on the Retirement Living Code of Conduct, email us at [email protected].